Week 13 of 52: Spiritual Preparedness

Welcome to this on-going series entitled “52 Weeks to Preparedness.” Each week, we will share the week’s action plan, authored by Tess Pennington of Readynutrition. This step-by-step plan provides an organized method of increasing family readiness.

This week’s installment is called “Week 13 of 52: Spiritual Preparedness.” If you missed week 12, “Financial Preparedness,” you can find it here.

Week 13 of 52: Spiritual Preparedness

We tend to play stories in our head. Whether they are truth or fiction, we live through these stories and feel them as if they are really happening. When I began Ready Nutrition two years ago, I plunged myself head first into every preparedness book and article, studied every possible disaster I may run into, and every grim scenario. Needless to say, I was playing a 24-hour TEOTWAWKI scenario in my head and became weary as a result. In my mind, I was not studying it, I was living through it. Even though, I prayed regularly and had accepted God into my heart and lived a Christian life, I found it hard to cope because there was something missing. I realized I had not put any thought into my spiritual preparedness before I began this arduous preparedness journey.

I am sharing my doomer fatigue experience with you because I want each of you to know that the end result of not preparing your spirit for hard decisions and troubling times will effect your overall well being and make it all the more difficult for you to shake the affects of the disaster away. The longer you stay in the shock and awe of the disaster moment, the longer it takes for you move into surviving.

Choosing to prepare now is a choice you made with your spirit to survive. You are putting plans in place, purchasing basic living items, tools, and presently you are working on your spirit to be prepared. When you are spiritually prepared, the groundwork is then laid for mental preparedness (something we will dive into next week).

As James Allen once said, “Every man thinks, lives and acts in exact accordance with the belief which is rooted in his inner most being.” Essentially, spiritual preparedness is your moral compass that guides you through the good and bad times. It is your core beliefs that make up who you are and serve you throughout your walk of life. These beliefs are what guide you, motivate you, sustain you or they will do the complete opposite. They will either become a negative or positive influence depending on what they hold as truths about the nature of yourself and your reality.

Exercising these core beliefs will help you further develop and be more aware of where your spiritual growth is at and what you need to improve on. You can develop this further by being aware of it and by utilizing these mental exercises:

1. Sit and reflect by asking yourself moral questions such as:

Am I what I want to be?

Do I have the courage to make the hard changes to be a better person?

Do I have the courage to turn away from bad habits?

And going even further, asking the tough preparedness questions and really investigating why you chose to answer the way you did can help you in developing your spiritual preparedness. Here are some examples of these types of questions:

What would I do if a neighbor needed my help? How far would I go to help my neighbor?

If a relative needed food, would I help them? Why is it important to help others?

Would using a gun on a home intruder be something I could do? Why would I feel bad about it?

Would I feel responsible if I could not help someone medically and they died? Why am I taking that burden on?

Working on your spirit and further developing your moral compass will help you in finding the answers to tough situations during disasters. And, most importantly you will find peace in the midst of adversity. Possessing this spiritual preparedness will lay the groundwork for being mentally prepared for disasters.

2. Knowledge is power. Reading inspirational books and printing out inspirational passages that call to you is a tool that many use to stay spiritually awakened. In addition, reading survival books and survival fiction can help the reader look at preparedness from different perspectives and learn more about their spiritual foundation through the characters of the books. Devotional studies have helped many in developing their spiritual preparedness.

3. Acknowledgement and gratitude are other ways that you can begin laying a spiritual foundation. I have often started my prayers with how thankful I am for the family, friends and events that shaped who I am. Even the bad events played a part in who I am. I then follow the gratitude with further prayers. After I am done, I feel at peace.

4. Find passages in a book or religious reference and writing it down for you to turn to later also helps. In my preparedness manual, I have an entire section of my book that has inspirational quotes and bible passages that I have printed out or found that has touched me. In addition, I have all of the church handouts that I have received over the years to turn to.

Preps to buy:

The best way to begin training your mind for mental preparedness is through knowledge, faith and practice. Go online and purchase some books to add to your survival library. Some books that I have read and have found helpful in this area are:

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.

Wilderness is free, independent, and self-reliant, and time spent in the outdoors has helped us at Survival Nation to become the same. Survival Nation creates and shares information that educates, inspires, and celebrates the wonder of outdoor life. No one has strayed so far from their natural roots in the Wilderness that they cannot return. We welcome anyone who feels nature’s tug or hears the mountains calling to them. We will take this Journey with you.